JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A man charged with arranging the fatal ambush of a Microsoft design manager is headed to trial Monday in Florida, more than four years after the victim was repeatedly shot outside his vehicle while his 2-year-old child was strapped in a car seat.
\n\nInvestigators say a tire was placed in the road in a plot to distract and kill Jared Bridegan, 33, in Jacksonville Beach in 2022. They allege it was a murder-for-hire scheme involving his ex-wife and her current husband.
\n\nThe husband, Mario Fernandez Saldana, 38, is charged with first-degree murder in Duval County court. Bridegan’s former wife, Shanna Gardner, 39, is also charged with murder, though her trial won’t start until September.
\n\nBridegan and Gardner were granted a divorce in 2015. But it was followed by years of acrimony over the parenting of their two children.
\n\nPolice found that Gardner “hated Mr. Bridegan, hated having to share custody of the children with him and wanted him dead,” Judge London Kite wrote, summarizing evidence after a bond hearing in 2024.
\n\nThe alleged gunman, Henry Tenon, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2023 and agreed to testify against Fernandez Saldana. But he withdrew the plea…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health